Hitoshi Yamagami

“When I saw this model, I felt really motivated. I assumed that, as they had gone to the trouble of making this model, they must surely have also settled on the finer details. But it turns out that this model was all there was.”

Contents

History

Originally hired in April 1989 as a programmer in the R&D1 division, Yamagami's superiors realized that he had a natural talent for creating games, and allowed him to take the lead on his own smaller projects. The first of these games was Dr. Mario, a Tetris inspired game, with its own unique twist on the formula. With the great success of Dr. Mario, Yamagami's bosses gave him even more power, and appointed him as the "Puzzle Master", who would oversee the development of many classic Nintendo puzzle games. When Intelligent Systems pitched the idea of Panel de Pon to Nintendo, Yamagami became head of the project, and together Nintendo and IS created a new kind of puzzle game.

At this time, Yamagami was also appointed as a manager for games being developed by outside studios. However, despite having more duties, he still was required to keep making his own games, and was the lead director for the Game & Watch Collection series.

He played a big part in the success of Xenoblade Chronicles, as when Tetsuya Takahashi was prepared to cut out chunks of the game to meet his deadline, Yamagami had development extended which was a drastic change from Namco's managment style.